Advice for Internal Networking and Moving to a FO Role
Hi all. I'm looking for advice on how to network internally with FO traders and transition out of my current MO job.
Context- I work at a BB in Ops where I do trade booking and client support. I've been here for 3 months out of college and have been enjoying the work so far. Its been interesting learning a lot about the life cycle of a trade and the kinds of clients that we service/execute on behalf of. I communicate daily with the BO of the firm's clients on confirming their trades and whatever else they may need from an ops perspective. I also get to work with our FO traders on a regular basis and help them with whatever they may need. All the analysts and associates on my team have been very helpful with training/onboarding and i feel like I've picked things up fairly quickly. My managers/VP are solid and have been at the firm for a while. I have talked with them about my desire to get on the trading desk and they are very encouraging of that. I know that its uncommon but some of the traders started off in Ops and made their way to the desk and have gone on to be pretty successful. Internal promotion is definitely valued at this firm and i am looking to take advantage of that. I also was accepted to a Ms Finance program at my university but decided to defer for a year to work.
My primary goal is to be the best analyst i can be in my current role and to strengthen our team and increase the automation of our work and build stronger relationships with clients. My secondary goal is to get on a trading desk. I've been trying my best to be quick to respond to clients and instantly responding to any skypes/teams msgs from traders and being as helpful as possible. I also am working on getting on the phone more often and I've heard that can go a long way and is more appreciated than an email sometimes.
I'm wondering how to leverage this position to get where I want to be, what I should be doing in the meantime, and how I should go about networking with traders in the FO and letting them know I am committed to getting on the desk. Also, how to build confidence for talking over the phone with clients and traders? I am also seriously considering doing my CFA lvl 1 within the next few months and taking coding/modeling classes in my free time.
Any advice is greatly appreciated.
bump
It sounds like you're doing all the right things, just be sure to keep yourself visible to FO personnel and don't hesitate to network with them multiple times a week. At the end of the day you want to make sure that when an opportunity arises, you're the first name that pops into people's heads.
As far as confidence is concerned, talk to these guys about the trades they're working on! Understand what it is they're doing and why they're doing it. Having that level of knowledge will make you standout and will also help you demonstrate you're not just a process monkey in MO. It's also worth remembering, MO is a critical role to FO and you can easily ruin their lives, so you're definitely in a position of power to an extent!
Hope this helps!
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